Episode Details

Vanessa Dimitropoulos spent eleven years as a working actress, with roles in The Walking Dead and The Big Short. Then a relationship with a man studying to be a therapist unraveled her life, and taught her how psychological abuse works when almost no one can see it.

In this conversation with Lisa, Vanessa describes how her openness got used against her, how the groundwork for a false allegation gets laid in advance, and what reactive abuse looks like from the inside. She's candid about the fallout and just as candid about the practical lessons: how to stay calm when police arrive, why the composed person is usually believed, and why your lawyer can't be your emotional support. Then she turns it into hope, through The Escaped Goat and her push to make psychological abuse a recognized crime. This is her personal account, shared for education and support; the charges against her were dismissed.

✅ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
✅ How an abuser can weaponize therapy and your own vulnerabilities
✅ What "reactive abuse" is, and how it gets staged and filmed
✅ Why the calmest person in the room is usually believed
✅ How a smear campaign follows you long after you're out
✅ What to expect, and how to carry yourself, if police show up
✅ Why your lawyer is not your emotional support, and who should be
✅ Why psychological abuse is still so rarely taken seriously
✅ How one survivor turned public humiliation into advocacy

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS (+1:00 for the bumper)
0:00 Intro
1:00 From "The Walking Dead" to advocacy
6:00 How a therapist ex weaponized her own words
15:00 Reactive abuse, and a staged arrest
27:00 A story that ran on Christmas Eve
34:00 How to stay calm when police arrive
41:00 Why psychological abuse should be a crime

CTA (spoken): Facing false allegations or a smear campaign? Book a free discovery call at beentheregotout.com.
Books: Been There Got Out — https://www.amazon.com/Been-There-Got-Relationships-Circumstances/dp/194627495X/ · When Your Ex Turns the Kids Against You — https://www.amazon.com/Been-There-Got-Out-Against/dp/1967674183
Tags: reactive abuse, psychological abuse, vanessa dimitropoulos, the escaped goat, false allegations, narcissistic abuse, smear campaign, coercive control